Why isn't Cas really back? The "If you'll have me" really struck home for me--this is the first time they haven't been wedged onto the same mission for the season, or not working on the same mission and just getting time or help when Cas has a break in his goings on.

This is Cas saying "Hey, guys--can I hunt with you? Can we be on the same team?" To me it was the follow up from the "I'd rather be hear with you" during the season of great betrayal--and I'll never believe (since it conveniently can't be proven) that he would have done that without Naomi's urging--no lie that I wouldn't prefer if she'd grabbed him after he'd ask that, but still. Sam asked him to work with them and he is.

That's pretty Free Will to me--or do you think he would have left them without Naomi's command? Aside from reporting in--what is he doing that you don't think he'd be doing otherwise? Coming straight back to the boys and following them wherever they were going, and seeing that it was part of his mess and helping them get Kevin away and giving Dean enough information to reach a little bit more of emotional peace (how much did them pulling aside to talk about Feelings and then Sam showing up in the middle of the talk feel like a million fic setups?).

I'm not sure why we'd need any more purgatory flashbacks--what are you expecting they'll show them for? They underscored (in a way that I guess Dean couldn't be honest about earlier?) how absolutely soul-ravaging the whole thing was, and now that Cas has pointed out that Dean lied to himself about Cas' decision. I'd only think we'd see it again for a) evidence of the angels springing him (which we don't need, since we've been told, but maybe clues to how to fight them?), or b) some revelation about Benny that challenges what we've been told.

So, for me--the revelation (NPI) that we're dealing with a matched set of tablets (all the teams get one), that Metatron just bounced from secretary to being who ,made decisions (and therefore might be a character, or someone whose story is further researched) and that Cas is back and being manipulated and they're working together on what is finally the A plot for the season strikes me as finally having set the game pieces up, not treading water. You can't get to the A plot without defining what it is.

But I'm not looking at the A plot as emotional honesty or explanations for the past year. I expect that to come at us in drips and drabs (as we find out why Sam could leave like that, who was watching, did he really make the call to give it up?) as they fulfill the action quest of the season--and the information (if they do it well) may tie in, but it's not the main event, so this isn't treading water--this is the assembly of the Fellowship at Rivendell.

Grab your lembas, guys! We've got some researching to do!

how much did them pulling aside to talk about Feelings and then Sam showing up in the middle of the talk feel like a million fic setups?

So very much. Not to mention Cas's new super-charged angel mojo.

Not to mention Cas's new super-charged angel mojo

A careful blend of supercharged and not "I will push the boys to the side while I blast through every evildoer on Earth. Later Dean will feed me grapes while he's naked."

So the boys are not only still relevant, but can keep centre stage.

The Cas and Dean stuff really broke me. Cas saying he missed television, and disappearing into the bathroom to come out like the old Cas, and Dean's ridiculous guilt trip about everything including the price of tea. If I hadn't shipped them before, last night would have done it.

I mean, Cas somehow got out of Purgatory (well, we know how, even if Dean doesn't) and Dean's still protecting him, the powerful angel, yelling at him for going in alone and worrying about whether or not he's up to full strength.

The weakest part of the episode for me was the round table with the possible prophets. For one, where did they get the glowing Star Trek table? And two, why did Crowley hesitate to kill Kevin. If those were the next-in-line prophets, someone else would have been able to do the job. Not that I want Kevin dead at all, but it seems like a logic flaw. Crowley was torturing that angel viciously, but he stops at taking one of Kevin's fingers? I don't get it.

I think that Crowley was being practical. The other prophets were wild cards. Kevin was a proven quantity, and had the ability, and had previously been displayed to be able to be manipulated into doing the job.

Those guys in the room? What if he ended up at Aaron? Who there is brighter than Kevin? It might be a downside that he has the big picture, but then again, I think it's a net upside, and the fact that he has a relationship with the Winchester is just shit you have to deal with.

It's been a while since I felt like Crowley was doing shit that messed up lives and played into a grandiose plan. Yesterday I felt good about that again.

That's pretty Free Will to me--or do you think he would have left them without Naomi's command?

Who knows. Naomi snapped him someplace he doesn't seem to remember but it sounds like he's been before and then he's told that he'll help the Winchesters, come back and report to her and NOT remember any of it. That's not Free Will. It's canon, but it's not anything I'd call "Free Will" for Cas.

Why isn't Cas really back?

I'm guessing this wasn't to me but if it were, he's totally back. He's just being controlled by something he doesn't even seem to realize is there. But he's back. And committed to the team even if he doesn't know why.

Um, if not in response to me, skip past.

Once Cas got out of Purgatory, what else was he going to do go? Where was he going to go?

V. young JP playing MacGyver's nephew.

If the show weren't all about Winchesters? Back to the garrison. Do angel stuff. He watched Tiktaalik wander out of the water onto mud (which might remain my favorite throwaway line) to evolve into everything on land. Chuck the prophet is obviously dead (because Kevin exists) but might have been God for a while so that position might still be vacant. Or at least require some high-level meetings to discuss. Unless Chuck died and was revived and now it's like when there were two Buffys. Logically, I can't see where Cas automatically gets out of Purgatory and his only true place is with the Winchesters. He pushed Dean through the Gap when Dean and Benny escaped on purpose. He stayed in Purgatory to atone.

I mean, the show is Winchesters and Misha is great, so clearly he belongs with the boys. It's the way I want to watch the show.

Still Cas wasn't trying to escape Purgatory. Or get back to Dean whom he had always intended to not follow out of Purgatory. Cas got unexpectedly rescued and doesn't remember it and is working for Naomi whom he doesn't remember either.

I'll enjoy watching it but he's not operating under Free Will, to my eyes.

Wow.

I know I have an angle I watch from, but still...

Cas can't go to heaven, since he's directly responsible for laying waste to it and its denizens. Hell is out of the question, and he can't get back to Purgatory where he feels he belongs.

Unlike Earth, where he doesn't feel he belongs.

My reading of the Naomi conversation was that these were his first orders, otherwise why do you pull him out and just repeat the conversation you had a week ago, without referring to having had the conversation a week ago. If they wanted to tell us he had already gotten orders, that would have been in the episode.

It wasn't.

Occam's razor leads me to believe that whether or not Cas might have stayed (I vote he's got not much else to do, since he can get the answers to the TV he's enjoying so much), he went where he intended to go once he couldn't stay where he'd intended to stay.

Remember--he fled Dean, and pushed him through the wormhole (I was at a Stargate place before Carter showed up), but he also didn't have the nuts to walk away from Dean once Dean got all obsessive about him. He's not really that great about being away from Dean when it's a little less hard.

So, yeah, until the show explicitly tells me that was the n+1 time Cas got orders, I'm going to assume what I was told is what was true--and I'll take it as they feed me.

I do have two worries--one that his love for the Winchesters will allow him to break *angel* compulsion, or that he's Metatron. Or, hell, anyone is Metatron. I hate that sort of "surprise".